A long time ago, and far away, the Greek playwright Sophocles declared: "I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating." The Cheated Generation would say that Sophocles is old-school and bitter, and probably took amphetamines while he was writing all those plays.

These are rough times for a generation of sports fans – the Cheated Generation – whose heroes are proving not to just have feet of clay, but to be buried knee-deep in flaws and fakes.

But don't tell us that bracelet doesn't mean anything anymore. "Even in the wake of our disappointment, we also express our gratitude to Lance as a survivor for the drive, devotion and spirit he brought to serving cancer patients and the entire cancer community," said the Livestrong Foundation, upon Armstrong's confession.

If Bonds and Clemens are permanently denied entrance into Cooperstown, then voters are making a 'you use, you lose' stand – and a sanctimonious mistake. Plaque these guys, please.

An entire generation is dealing with broken dreams and bursted balloons, and those who are part of it are not happy. In fact, they wish you would just ignore the issue, and not tell them their heroes are frauds.

"When Mom got home, I'd always count her tip money to see how good she did," A-Rod would say. He told that story on the day in 2001 when he signed a $252m contract with the Texas Rangers. There would be 14 All-Star Games, three Most Valuable Player awards and more than 600 home runs. A-Rod was one his way to being the clean home-run leader – homing in on Bonds' tainted record of 755.

Then came the denials of steroid use. Then came the confession. Now A-Rod has become baseball's social leper, and a 15-year old high school baseball player in 2001 who idolized A-Rod is now a 27-year-old baseball fan with nothing to show for his emotional investment.

As we grow up, many of our heroes are revealed to be human. But A-Rod's cheating invalidates the core of why a young boy might have looked up to him, bought his jersey and sought out his autograph: baseball. Why else would anyone care about Alex Rodriguez, if he wasn't a baseball player?

And yet the Cheated Generation are angry – not at the cheaters, but those who judge them. They wish you would just leave their heroes alone.

When it comes to baseball and PEDs it's hard to do anything other than shrug, especially in this case when it looks like nothing more than a witch hunt conducted by [MLB commissioner] Bud Selig and his cronies to claim the scalps of some prominent players, winning some cheap headlines in the process to show it's taking its drug enforcement policy seriously.

The Cheated Generation also try to rationalize the cheaters, to soften the blow, by claiming that everybody who has ever played any of these games cheated too.

In an email to the ESPN 980 radio station, in Washington, Wayne Bryant wrote: "After Ryan Braun's suspension resulting from his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs, we get to hear lies, rumors, gossip and hypocrisy from the righteous. We get to hear how the players of yesteryear did it the right way; they only took amphetamines, speed, uppers; the stuff that did not enhance their performances. I suspect few reporters, broadcasters, journalists, radio hosts, analysts or talking heads will ask probing questions relating to how a distinction is made regarding the use of PEDs by the current generation (to include that past 15 years) and 'pick-me-ups" used by the Olde-Tymers?'

Barry Bonds leaves federal court after being given two years probation for obstructing justice. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Here is the distinction – Willie Mays could have taken a bucket of greenies every day for his entire career and never hit in a season the 73 home runs Barry Bonds hit in 2001 at the age of 37, 24 more than he had ever hit before.

Grasping at any reason to validate the illusions of greatness it fell for, the Cheated Generation offer the defense that as it is useless to try to stop the cheating, we should give in and accept the notion that cheating is the new normal. This, of course, would legitimize the accomplishments of their heroes.

The actual War on Drugs is an unabashed policy failure, rife with Bill of Rights abuses and encroachments, sloppy police work and overzealous prosecution. Plenty of people have gone to jail; billions of dollars have been spent; the nation's drug habits remain largely the same. The federal War on Drugs in Sports hasn't fared much better.

As if locking up poor crack addicts is the same as punishing millionaire athletes.

Sophocles also once said: "Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all."